Started using language logs last week to figure out what I'm slacking in for each of my target languages, and shocked on multiple counts. First, that I have such comprehensive resources for Arabic and Italian, but not at all for Norwegian or French.
I've also been trying out different schedules to maintain four languages at the same time. So right now, I'm trying to practice having one day a week be focused on one language. Currently, that's Monday for Arabic, Tuesday for French, Wednesday for Norwegian, and Thursday for Italian. Then, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I was planning on using to patch up any holes I see in these logs, which I didn't really have time for this weekend oops...
Going to continue with this for another week or so to see if it genuinely helps and if it doesn't I'll be moving on to a different strategy.
All the love to @nordic-language-love for creating these awesome tools! Here is the post where I first read about them and there’s some awesome encouragement and tips on there.
Good look on everyone's language learning journeys!!!!
1. tudo bem? - how are you? this literally translates to "is all well?"
responses:
tudo bem - everything is fine
tudo bem, e contigo? - everything is fine, and you?
tudo bem, e consigo? - everything is fine, and you? (formal)
sim, e contigo? - yes, and you?
2. como estás? - how are you? or como está? - how are you? (formal)
responses:
estou bem, e tu? - I am well, and you?
estou bem, e você? I am well, and you? (formal)
Who are you?
nome - name
como te chamas? - what is your name?
como se chama? - what is your name? (formal)
chamo-me ___ - my name is ___
o meu nome é ___ - my name is ___
eu sou o/a ___ - my name is ___ (a/o depends on what is your gender)
Nice to meet you:
prazer em conhecer-te - nice to meet you
prazer em conhecê-lo/la - nice to meet you (formal)
(lo/la depends on whether you're speaking to a man/woman)
muito prazer - very nice to meet you
prazer - pleasure!
Where are you from?
és de onde? - where are you from?
é de onde? - where are you from? (formal)
de onde são? - where are you (all) from?
*the order here is flexible, you could also say "de onde é?"*
responses:
eu sou de ___ - I am from ___
nós somos de ___ - we are from ___
nós somos polacos - we are Polish
eu sou Americano - I am American
frança - France
alemnha - Germany
*notice we use the verb "ser" (to be), because this is more of a permanent characteristic. *
de - of, from. This is sometimes switched to "do/dos" when combined with "O" and "da/das" when combined with "A". This is because a definite article is required for some countries. More on this in future lessons.
I've been tracking my language learning in Notion since last year and I've finally decided to share my Notion set up! I've been putting it off for so long because I use a lot of colors and abbreviations that only I can understand, so I thought it'd be hard to explain. But I'll try to explain it the best I can.
I color-code all my target languages - Japanese is blue, Chinese is orange and French is green. I also track yoga/biking in purple. On the left, I have my goals for the week and on the right I have the amount of time I want to spend on each language for the week vs. the amount of time actually spent. I break down my time tracked for each category J - Japanese, C - Chinese, F - French, Y - Yoga, R - Reading. I use an app called Focus To-Do to track my time in pomodoros and I get my daily and weekly stats on it. I also don't track time doing Anki and Kanji Garden, since it's just a couple minutes a day or time I spend watching things. I only track proper study time like reading or grammar, etc.
Next I have my habit tracker where I track reading, writing, listening and speaking for each language.
Japanese
I've been reading キッチン by 吉本ばなな since March and I'm 36% through! I'm going slowly because I want to be really thorough since this is my first Japanese book. I basically translate every sentence myself, then compare it with the English translation to make sure I got it right and then I highlight any words and grammar points I didn't know. I also add all unfamiliar words (and I mean all!) to Anki and study them. It's not as bad as it sounds - I'm at about 17 unknown words per page right now and I can get through ~2 pages in a half hour like this. I know this sounds like a long and painstaking process and I wouldn't recommend it, but I'd rather be super thorough now, so I'll have an easier time reading my next book.
I'm also learning N2 kanji with the sou matome N2 kanji book. I just add new kanji to Kanji Garden and study them like that. I also started watching a new anime this week, Clannad, and I really like it so far! I watch it with dual subs on Animelon and sorta read the Japanese and English at the same time. I can't really explain how I do it haha. I always have trouble getting into anime and I only watch it for listening practice to be honest, so I'm glad I finally found something I like.
Chinese
I've been trying to learn traditional characters since I've completely plateaued with Chinese and wanted to learn something new and challenging. So I've been reading transcripts from the Learn Taiwanese Mandarin podcast and studying words I don't know with Anki. I've been studying like a half hour a week these last couple weeks and that's it. So I decided to drop Chinese for now because I feel like I'm spreading myself too thin and I'd rather dedicate more time to it when I have more time.
French
I started my FLE certification course to teach French as a foreign language! I'm so happy since I'm considering teaching French online. It's really interesting and also less time consuming than I expected. It says it takes like 30 minutes per section, but it's just a 5-minute video, slides to review and a short quiz. So it takes me like 15 minutes per section, so I'm not complaining. It's a general overview of basic teaching techniques like communicative and task-based and stuff like that. I'm curious to do the readings to get a better idea. Although next month will be more challenging since I'll have to submit some lesson plans.
I've been feeling really stuck with French since I didn't know how to study it anymore. My level is B2-C1. I watch a lot of French Youtubers, read posts from natives here and constantly immerse myself in it to the point where I think in French half the time. I've completely stopped writing since I'm thinking in it so much, so there's kind of no point anymore. I can't really tell what I need to work on since my listening and reading are 10/10 and my writing and speaking are probably 8/10. I feel like I'm good enough at this point and it's hard to find things to improve, aside from some pesky grammar mistakes, and ways to challenge myself. So I'm glad I started a FLE course. My personal definition of an advanced level is being able to follow a university-level course on a subject taught in the language. It's why I define my Chinese as C1, since I took a few Chinese literature classes for native speakers at uni and did really well in them. Although that's probably not my Chinese level anymore since I graduated a few years ago.
That's the end of my Notion tour! I hope it was useful and not too convoluted haha.
Inspired by @nordic-language-love @linguenuvolose and @mediocrelanguagelearner I'm going to also share my language learning logs every week from now on! I always love reading your updates 💞
I’ve been focusing on the pronunciation today and - not surprisingly - the ones I need to work on are the ふ sounds (can’t tell the two apart) and the ら column sounds (the mix is quite hard to achieve!)
Read Mysteriet om Nils pages 145-151 & answered text questions (read aloud)
Various workout/yoga videos
Japanese
Duolingo: Restaurant, Activity 1
JFZ chapter 7 exercises
Writing practice: consolidated adjectives, family, animals and colours vocabulary
Watched 1x Pokémon episode
Kanji app: 5 lessons
Listened to Nihongo Con Teppei (passive listening)
Norwegian
I managed to get a little ahead with Mysteriet Om Nils. I wanted to complete chapters 34 & 35 in January, but then I realised chapter 35 is quite short, but chapter 36 is massive. So I zoomed ahead with chapter 35 and started reading chapter 36 this week. Hopefully I’ll be on track to finish chapters 36 and 37 this month month!
Also, does anyone else find workout videos in their target language so much more fun and engaging? Like I haaaaate workout videos and I’ve never been a big yoga fan before, but now I’m watching them in Norwegian I’m suddenly so much more motivated. Perhaps it’s because I feel like I’m also doing listening practice at the same time, or because my brain has an extra thing to focus on so I don’t get so bored.
Last week’s goals
Mysteriet om Nils ch 36 reading p145-151 [7/7] ✅
Watch 3x Distriktsnyheter broadcasts [3/3] ✅
Write 1x book review [0/300] ❌
Read 1x article related to corona virus + note vocabulary [2/1] ✅
Read 1x article related to social media + note vocabulary [0/1] ❌
This week’s goals
1x written task
Read 3x articles
Spend at least 30 minutes on a vocab list
Watch 3x Distriktsnyheter broadcasts
Listen to 1x Norsken, svensken og dansken podcast
Complete something for each day of wotd challenge
Japanese
I’m trying to us the Japanese keyboard on Duolingo instead of just using the word bank and I think it’s helping me get to grips with the language structure and vocabulary a bit more. I actually managed to do two lessons perfectly, which made me really happy!
In regards to listening, I’m still only understanding a few words here and there of Nihongo Con Teppei and Pokémon, but it’s still exciting! This week I learned the word でも (but), and I felt really proud of myself for recognising it in one of the podcasts. I think the day I finally understand a full sentence is gonna blow my mind lol.
Last week’s goals
JFZ ch 7 exercises ✅
Consolidate adjectives + family kanji with writing practice ✅
Duolingo: reach level 2 of Restaurant skill [6/6] ✅
Watch 1x Pokémon episode [1/1] ✅
This week’s goals
JFZ chapter 8 videos + reading
Duolingo: reach level 2 of Activity 1 skill
Learn the days of the week (including kanji)
Watch 1x Pokémon episode
Productivity
I’ve been working hard to get back into exercising and it’s starting to pay off. I’ve decided to write a more detailed log over on my sideblog @jo-jenova if you care. In short, I’m really pleased with how much pink and green squares there are on this week’s grid and I’m starting to feel a bit more like myself.
Last week’s goals
Stretch on at least 4 days [4/4] ✅
Train pole/hoop on at least 2 days [2/2] ✅
Practise fire fans and/or sword ✅
Finish reading my book [371/371] ✅
Do some form of writing on at least 2 days [2/2] ✅
So, I want to start logging how much and in what way I use and learn languages. This concept isn’t very well thought up yet so I’ll probably refine it as I go but my main idea is to track what I do and be very honest about it. I was thinking of not doing this now because, as you might know, I’m not in the most stable or best mental health state of my life right now but then I was like so what? This is also a part of my language learning journey and if it isn’t that productive then that’s fine. But I also hope me recording it on here will make me do more things so we’ll see how this all works out. So, let’s get into it
Italian
I wrote a little with an ex-flatmate and my old landlords (god I have to sort that shit).
Reading friends’ Italian posts and stories on instagram
Recently I’ve found Italian music I actually like which has been rare. I’ve felt their music always sounds so old in a weird way? Anyway I’ve been enjoying Elisa, Calcutta, Thegiornalisti and Coez
I’ve been watching ilviaggiodiscoperta on instagram which is an account that makes videos about venetian history in Italian and it’s really lovely because it means I get to reconnect with that lovely city
I would like to restart reading Vita nova by Dante. Some time it would be good if I actually learnt the passato remoto form completely and I’m honestly still always a little unsure about the imperative so I’d like to work on those but that will probably be in december.
French
I’ve rediscovered some French music too, Bigflo & Oli, Vianney, Angèle, Eddy de Pretto, Stromae
French really is such a low priority right now (and has been for a while). I feel like I have to find my purpose with it again. Why am I learning French? What is my goal? I want to connect with francophone culture(s) more but I just feel so detached from it. I would like to do some Duolingo again. I know it’s not the best resource but it feels safe and comfortable and I want to do it from Italian to French because I’ve realized that’s how my brain processes the language now anyway. It seems like I might have some use for my French in my job from now on so that’s really exciting but also scary.
Dutch
I think I spoke with Myrte about an old moldy cheeseburger in Iceland in Dutch this week?
I sometimes read the NWS news on instagram but I don’t always understand a lot
Dutch... my sweet summer child, I’m so sorry for always abandoning you.. I should write more in Dutch, actually do the scary thing of producing something in the language and not just be like wow I’m so good at Dutch because I can understand a lot of what’s happening in a text. And I feel like I understand less than I used to so idk. Every time Myrte writes a post in Dutch I’m like I... don’t understand this? And I’m like that’s a shame, she understands your dumb Swedish posts and she doesn’t even study the language, get your act together Ida. So yeah, the goal for Dutch could be to write just one or two sentences each day. It doesn’t have to be good or correct or meaningful but I think just the act of forcing myself to use it would be very good for me.
Low pressure goals
I want these to be low pressure because I can’t handle a lot more on my plate right now so I’m very consciously making these as little effort as I can
Italian: Read the first chapter of Vita Nova. Sure, technically it’s 8 pages but it’s a lot of footnotes so it’s more like 4. And I can absolutely manage 1 page a day. That doesn’t seem as daunting
French: Do 30xp on the Italian to French Duolingo tree. I would put 10 but I know me and if I do 10 I’ll do 30 just to meet the day’s quota. I can do really simple stuff, it will take 10 minutes tops
Dutch: Write 5 sentences total divided on 3 different days. I’ll put my (very abandoned) Dutch notebook next to my bed so I can just write something short if I feel like it. Anything as long as it has a subject, a verb and an object is enough.
I feel happy about these goals. They feel short and manageable, the only one I’m worried about is the Italian one because Dante can be pretty daunting but I hope I can get myself to do it. I don’t have to have any great expectations of reading it all quickly (even if it’s a short book), I just want to read it. I know this is a pretty long post but maybe it’s more for myself than for anyone else, a conversation about my current feelings about these languages. I can do this.
